Currently on the home stretch of the second and final volume of Robert Musil's "The Man Without Qualities". A gargantuan book, so intelligent that I only understand the chapter titles. I asked before deep in another thread, but can't remember if you answered: have you read it, Piso? You like Thomas Mann, so this might be right up your alley. Reminds me of "Magic Mountain".

Next up will probably be Orhan Pamuk's "Snow". I'm determined to read it before the weather turns nicer.

On another discussion Skaynan posted a link to a book-length PDF on "Bruckner, Mahler, Schoenberg", written by Dika Newlin in 1947. You might find it an interesting supplement to your current Bruckner readings: http://www.abruckner.com/articles/articlesenglish/newlindikabruckner/

I tend to read multiple books, and kinds of books (philosophy, novels, poetry...), concurrently; it may be an unfortunate symptom of my social upbringing that I can't (or won't) focus on just one at a time. With that in mind, I'm currently cycling between:

Adorno: Aesthetic Theory -- dense but extremely rewarding. I've heard people say that they find Adorno's writings on specific composers/pieces easier than his writings on general philosophical/aesthetic principles. There is probably some truth to this, but one cannot fully understand these specific works without understanding the general principles underlying them. Hence, the value of trudging through Aesthetic Theory.

Houellebecq: The Elementary Particles -- excellent book. Stylistically less challenging than Adorno, but challenging in the ideas it makes one contemplate. His "Possibility of an Island," which I read a few months ago, is also excellent.

Hölderlin - Sämtliche Gedichte und Hyperion -- this is slow for me because my German isn't quite fluent anymore; but I find Hölderlin's unique poetic style fascinating and worth it. Reading Hölderlin makes me appreciate Rilke and Celan even more. He's also been an inspiration for some of my favorite composers (Nono, Kurtág).

I've started on Hermann Broch's Tod des Vergil. I've had that book for thirty years - and never got past the first 50 pages (a sentence may well cover 2 whole pages....). Now that I'm older, the topic seems more relevant.

Paul Badura Skoda's book on Mozart InterpretationJoan Retallack's interviews with John CageJalons by Pierre BoulezBeing and Event by Alain Badiou (Yeah Etha this is an overview of philosophy, politics takes up many threads of 20th Century and beyond, Sartre, Heideggar,axioms, Cantor,Lacan,Spinoza)2666 (a novel)by Roberto Bolano

I'm like Etha. I can't just read one book. I'm currently reading "Goedel, Escher, Bach", "Dr. Faustus", the "Mars" trilogy by Edgar Rice Burroughs, and "Good Omens" by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. I've been snowed in at work with pile upon pile of demands, so my reading has suffered. I go on vacation tomorrow, so I will probably finish Dr. Faustus in the next couple of days. I find Dr. Faustus much more interesting than "Magic Mountain".

I'm almost done with vol 2 of De La Grange's Mahler biography. A fascinating tale that weaves in much from the machinations of the fin de siecle musical world in Europe with the life story of Mahler. What is interesting is how disconnected his life circumstances usually were from the music he was composing at the time. The 6th and Kindertotenlieder were composed during a relatively tranquil time, while the 8th came after the death of his daughter.

This is a huge commitment, but well worth it for a stalwart Mahlerian.

I am a lover of books, but for someone who is a lover of books, I'm a really lousy reader. I am easily distracted; can quickly lose concentration and allow my eyes to continue roving over lines without my brain's processing a word; and require nearly complete silence before I'll even crack a cover. Moreover, maybe even worse than Etha and superhuge, I not only read multiple books, but I am also constantly getting seduced by other books and end up cheating on the books I am supposed to be loyally reading. Luckily my books do not get jealous and walk out on me. Oh, and if anyone even thinks about giving away the ending of something to me, I could be driven to commit a homicide crime. (It would not be murder, as I am not fully possessed of my faculties in such circumstances.)

All that said, right now I am in the middle (pretty much the dead middle) of Robert Bolano's "Savage Detectives." For some reason I knew I would become obsessed with this writer, so I started at the beginning. Earlier this year I read his "Nazi Literature in the Americas," then "Distant Star," an expansion of the last chapter of the first book, and now "The Savage Detectives," his first long novel. I see that scarecrow is reading "2666," his last book, posthumously published last year. That'll come later for me I'm sure. So far I've been a better reader of "The Savage Detectives" than almost anything in recent memory. Right from the first line I knew I would love it. In fact, we are such a good match, the book and I, that I was able to start reading it on a short trip the weekend before last -- on a plane, no less! -- and then even a little bit on a subway ride the other night. Getting off the subway I sat down on a bench for a minute just to get to the end of the chapter so I would not have to stick the bookmark in at an inappropriate pausing point.

Bolano, I think I mentioned in Alonso's literature thread (hope you're reading this buddy -- cheer me on!) to me is like the Borges of character, if there could be such a thing. Whereas Borges can create an entire world in a tiny story, Bolano (who apparently would acknowledge a debt only to Borges and Cortazar, among his Latin American forbears) can create an entire life in a few pages, or a fully voiced character (as he does in "The Savage Detectives") in the same span.

Before that I read Jean-Dominique Bauby's "Diving Bell and the Butterfly" and Cortazar's "Hopscotch." Though I don't think I can say I "finished" the latter. Maybe nobody can say that though.

I have just finished Doctorow, The March; started now with: Iliya Trojanow, Der Weltensammler (The Collector of Worlds). Being lazy, I just copy the information on the Amazon site (well, they do want to sell, so why should they be against this copying?): [Product Description: "The Collector of Worlds" is a meditation on the extraordinary life of infamous explorer Sir Richard Burton. The first westerner to make the hajj to Mecca, he also discovered the source of the Nile with Speke. His translation of the "Arabian Nights" is one of the great moments in the encounter between Islam and the West, that scandalised his contemporaries with its salty eroticism. Troyanov's novel does full justice to this great, controversial mediator between cultures. The book imagines his encounter with India as a young officer, and brings to life his trials and travels through the eyes of his Indian servant, the Sharif of Mecca and the former slave who guided Burton to the Nile. About the Author: Ilya Troyanov was born in Bulgaria. His family fled to West Germany to escape persecution and he grew up speaking German and English in Kenya. He is the author of Mumbai to Mecca, an account of his own pilgrimage to Islam's holiest site. His work has won a number of major German prizes.]

@Orhan Pamuk readers: May I ask you to please comment on his books when you've finished reading them? Last year I read "My Name is Red" by Pamuk. The subject, the plot, the insight, the structure of the book: everything was very, very fascinating. But quite often my patience was 'stretched' with repetitions and dry, overlength parts. So I'm still not sure if I dare handle another book by Pamuk.

Unlike some readers here, I can't read more than one at a time. If I don't stick with one until I finish, I'll only read the first fifty pages of book after book and never finish any.

I'm trying to finish Clea, the last volume of Lawrence Durrell's prose poetry tetralogy The Alexandria Quartet. I've had a lot of fun reading these philosophical novels, full of political and erotic intrigue in pre-WWII Egypt. I don't want the experience to end.

I recently read the Ivy Compton-Burnett volume listed above. I had heard great things about her satirical wit and ingenuity, but aside from a few great running gags I was disappointed.

I've had my eye on 2666 by Bolaño since reading a glowing review of his oeuvre in the Nation last year.

I don't know whether Henry James made it over to the Cambridge post office last sunny Sunday for the book sale, but my wife and I took away a couple of armloads of books for cheap. My haul included Sven Birkerts essays, an Evergreen Reader compendium, a novel by Ishmael Reed, the best of S.J. Perelman, a book of sailing stories for my son, and Joel Lester's book on 20C musical composition.

I'm stuck right now in 19th century fiction. So far this year I have finished Anna Karenina (Tolstoy) and Middlemarch (Eliot). I am now in the last pages of Emma (Austen), the triumph of love over reason. Next up, one of the granddaddies of them all: War and Peace (Tolstoy). I can't wait.

All that Trollope/Barchester stuff - finishing the last of it. Also, the Grand Horizontals - and, of course, the first one on the list was Marguerite Duplessis (Violetta Valery for the purposes of this site). But I gotta get that sort of new Kennedy (1999?) bio on Richard Strauss - problem is, I have read all those BIG three volume (plus other) bios on Mahler and they were so close, it's like killing two birds, etc. And I have to get (probably off Amazon) that bio of Johann Strauss, Jr. that lists all the opus numbers...HELP!

Judah Halevi's "Kuzari." Just started it and am still enjoying the introduction.Prior to that I read Strauss' essays "How to study Medieval Philosophy" and "Progress or Return."I am a very slow reader. I enjoy the sounds of words too much to move ahead unto another pager until I teased out enough aroma of these beautiful symbols dotted on the paper my hands touch.